A Moment of Calm, at Last

Good morning, friends. I am happy to report that after several weeks, I finally caught up at work yesterday. Things could get busy again at any moment, but at least for several hours, it was quiet and I could read and spin and knit for a bit. I am hoping it stays quiet this week.

We had a beautiful weekend here, and I tried to spend as much of it as I could outside. We even had dinner outside three evenings in a row (and it seems that the mosquitos enjoyed a dinner of my ankles as well). That means that there wasn't quite as much knitting, but as we're supposed to get a front coming through tomorrow bringing lots of rain and much cooler temperatures, the time to stay holed up with my knitting is coming.

I know that I really should be working on my Shifty pullover, but instead I cast on a new project -- at least it's a small one! I'd like to knit up a couple of charity hats before the end of the month, and I still had my leftovers from my Radiate sweater -- including an entire skein of the darkest color of the blue gradient -- in a bag next to by bed, so I decided to use some of them up in the first hat. The deep ribbing took a while, but I've already started the crown decreases and will likely finish the hat by the end of the day.

I'm using my Emblematic pattern (Ravelry link | Payhip link), which I have not knit since I completed the initial samples, and it's been fun to revisit it.

I have also made some progress on my sister-in-law's socks and am approaching the toe on the first of the pair:

As I get closer to finishing this first sock, I'm already having an internal debate about whether or not I want to make the second to match or just have the stripes line up even if they don't match in color. Input is welcome!

Before I go, I have to tell you about how I spent the last hour of my work day yesterday. I have long wanted to go to our local speaker series that features noted authors, but previously they were in person, usually on a weekday evening, making it very difficult for me to swing. This year, however, the series is online, with a possible option to switch to in person in the new year if circumstances allow, but the online option will remain. There's a speaker each month, and the series sends out a link to an unlisted YouTube video of the event that you can view for up to a week afterward. Yesterday it kicked off with Brit Bennett, who was amazing! It was such a treat to listen to her talk about her process of writing The Vanishing Half as well as how she's grown as a writer from her first book to her second. I can't wait for the rest of the series, either -- the only writer I'm not familiar with/haven't read anything by is Lawrence Wright, and it's very possible that I'll want to after hearing him speak. I am really happy with my decision to buy a ticket to this series, even though it felt like a bit of a splurge at the time. I figure that it works out to less than what I'd pay for a book by each author and much less than what I've likely saved by reading their books from the library instead of buying them. And haven't we learned from the past 18 months that we have to savor what life offers us any time we can?